Yeah, I understand that over there it refers specifically to something like cerebral palsy; here, it just means someone who acts quickly without thinking, usually doing something embarrassing or regrettable.

I imagine it’s like “bloody” or “f%ck” which also differ wildly on opposite sides of the pond.

oh I dunno… I use “bloody” all the time and no one gets offended… but yes, for some reason (probably having to do with the bloody fucking puritans) Fuck offends tons of people here in the states… particularly those over 30.

My sister had a clique when she entered junior high, the called themselves the “super spaz” club. They even had T-shirts made, back in the day when one could get ti-shirts emblazoned with rainbow-sparkled stencil letters right there in the mall. Ahhhh, the ’70s

Generally in North America, it just means a person who gets overexcited or too worked up over small things. Like almost any insult, the tone of voice and the intent of the speaker is a lot more relevant than the word itself, but as insults go, it’s fairly mild as we measure it. Often used as friendly teasing.

Does it have different connotations in the UK, or is it the same, just considered more offensive in scale?

Different words and gestures have different strengths in different places. Bloody rates about a 2 out of 10 in the US, in the UK it’s more like a 7 out of 10. Spaz in the US is about 1 out of 10, in the UK it’s more like 5 or 6. Fuck in the UK rates a 3 or 4 tops, but in the US is an 8 or a 9.

You know that ‘shave and a haircut, two bits’ rhythm people use when knocking on doors? Don’t use that in Mexico or most Spanish-speaking central and south American countries or you might get killed for it — it rates a 10 out of 10 in those places because the words to the rhythm are very different there. Roughly translated, it comes out in English as ‘your mother is a whore and you have no balls’.

Raise one middle finger in the US and it rates a 7 or 8 out of 10, show someone the back of your raised index and middle finger in the UK and it’s a 5 or 6. But use those gestures in the other country and people might not realize they’re being insulted. A thumbs-up is a deadly insult in some countries and a gesture of encouragement in others.

When dealing with foreigners, don’t assume that what they said/did means what you think it means — and the same applies to you when you’re visiting another country, don’t assume slang or gestures translate well.

In Japan, a “thumbs-up” has been considered a “secret” signal for “boyfriend” (example “Psst! Yuriko? If my Mom calls tonight, can you tell her I’m at your house studying?” “Why? Where are you really going?” [thumbs-up] “Oh, I gotcha! 😉 ” )
This was also considered a pretty crude hand-sign, because the reason it stood for “boyfriend” was the thumb represented his erect penis, and the curled fingers his ballsack. FYI, the gender-reversed version was to hold up a fist with an extended pinkie-finger (representing a clitoris, which is obviously much smaller than a thumb).

In more recent years, exposure to more western media has introduced the idea of a thumbs-up as a more encouraging gesture (or “everything’s good/fine!”)… but this is sometimes off-putting to girls, who may know very well how the guy giving the thumbs-up intended the gesture, but still kind of think of that hand-shape as representing a cock-n-balls. “Eww… couldn’t he just SAY he was fine?”

Cup of coffee squirted out my nose was bad enough, but damn, all over my french-dip and fries, priceless! This I would like to blow up and save for next Halloween! This strip and characters just keeps getting better!

This kind of reminds me of sleepovers with my cousins, except the damage is turned up to match our supernatural protagonists. We’d do crazy shit, some roughhousing would happen, and it usually ended in bruises and bandaids.

Also, I love Castella holding her head like that. It’s strangely adorable